CAIA Level 2 in March 2018

[hopeIdontfail]

Wrote level 1 about 1 year ago and might write level 2 in March.

Questions:

1. I work long hours (14-16) - head of financial modeling at a PE firm, can I study for level 2 in about 3 months? If so, is the CAIA textbook the best way to go?

2. Was there a revision to the non-textbook reading materials for 2018 from 2017 for level 2?

Thx

[Topps86]

Absolutley possible to complete in 3 months time. I was able to complete level 2 just under that time frame. I’d recommend Kaplan Schweser, I find the readings to much more to the point then the actual text, but thats my opinion. Not certain if there will be changes this year, since major changes were made for the 2017 testing windows.

I gave my self 2 months exactly to complete the entire readings. Studied for about 2.5 hours durring weekdays. About 45 minutes in the morning before work reading and lightly reviewing from the previous day. On my lunch break, I would spend about 30 minutes doing practice questions on the current topic. At night, right after dinner, I would continue reading or start a new topic for no more than and hour and a half. Sometimes just an hour. I wasnt exactly strict on myself, but if I missed hours one day, I would make up small chunks in the next. Friday nights and all of Saturdays I would leave open for my wife and I. I’m relatively young with no kids so datenights still happen :). Sundays I would review all the readings from the previous week for about 2 hours. I never missed Sunday. I found that even giving the brain time to relax on Friday and Saturday nights, and reviewing on Sundays, improved the cognitive memory throughout my studies. I would try and study on Saturdays when I had free time and I just felt like I was doing a chore on myself and wansn’t focused, so I stopped. Also, I never took notes in a seperate notepad. That takes up crucial time. I only jotted notes in the margins of each book.

The last month, give or take a few days, I spent only doing practice questions. I kept the time format all the same. 45 minutes in the AM, review ALL correct and incorrect practice questions from the night before. Lunch, review for about 30 minutes on why I got the wrongs ones wrong, and the correct ones correct. At night, take more practice questions. Weekends were less free in this month. I would take a full practice tests every Saturday, as early as possible. Sundays, I would review. Probably 4 - 5 hours each day. I repeated this basically until 2 days before the exam. Also, durring the last week before the exam, I reviewed ethics and the essay topics.

I know it may sound like a lot, but once you follow a routine that works for you, it’ll start to become second nature. I suggest that you consider taking level 2 in March. You’re almost there! Go out there and crush it!

[hopeIdontfail]

@Topps86

Absolutley possible to complete in 3 months time. I was able to complete level 2 just under that time frame. I’d recommend Kaplan Schweser, I find the readings to much more to the point then the actual text, but thats my opinion. Not certain if there will be changes this year, since major changes were made for the 2017 testing windows.

I gave my self 2 months exactly to complete the entire readings. Studied for about 2.5 hours durring weekdays. About 45 minutes in the morning before work reading and lightly reviewing from the previous day. On my lunch break, I would spend about 30 minutes doing practice questions on the current topic. At night, right after dinner, I would continue reading or start a new topic for no more than and hour and a half. Sometimes just an hour. I wasnt exactly strict on myself, but if I missed hours one day, I would make up small chunks in the next. Friday nights and all of Saturdays I would leave open for my wife and I. I’m relatively young with no kids so datenights still happen :). Sundays I would review all the readings from the previous week for about 2 hours. I never missed Sunday. I found that even giving the brain time to relax on Friday and Saturday nights, and reviewing on Sundays, improved the cognitive memory throughout my studies. I would try and study on Saturdays when I had free time and I just felt like I was doing a chore on myself and wansn’t focused, so I stopped. Also, I never took notes in a seperate notepad. That takes up crucial time. I only jotted notes in the margins of each book.

The last month, give or take a few days, I spent only doing practice questions. I kept the time format all the same. 45 minutes in the AM, review ALL correct and incorrect practice questions from the night before. Lunch, review for about 30 minutes on why I got the wrongs ones wrong, and the correct ones correct. At night, take more practice questions. Weekends were less free in this month. I would take a full practice tests every Saturday, as early as possible. Sundays, I would review. Probably 4 - 5 hours each day. I repeated this basically until 2 days before the exam. Also, durring the last week before the exam, I reviewed ethics and the essay topics.

I know it may sound like a lot, but once you follow a routine that works for you, it’ll start to become second nature. I suggest that you consider taking level 2 in March. You’re almost there! Go out there and crush it!

Thanks!